Hi everyone!! :D Hope you all had a good Christmas! What did everyone do and get? Ok here is my chapter five, I think I got it up pretty fast... or is that just my imagination? I actually have an excuse this time! I left my laptop charger at my friends house who lives agesssss away so I couldn't write more for days. It was depressing :'( But anyway... moving on from my sob stories. Here is chapter five, hope you likies!:)


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Chapter 5

Blaise Zabini swallowed nervously as he walked towards the one girl in the school that wouldn't try to flirt with him or stutter uncontrollably when he tried to talk to her. She was bent over a cauldron, concentrating furiously on the task at hand. She slammed her potion book down and groaned in defeat as she watched the mixture in the cauldron take on a muddy brown colour. Judging from her expression it was not the colour she had been going for.

Blaise stopped a few paces from her. She still hadn't noticed him. He hated talking to girls when they were in bad moods, it was too much effort. Ugh, why did they have to be so touchy and emotional? He thought to himself. He considered turning back and reporting to his friend that she had refused to talk to him, then changed his mind. He was not going to be intimidated by a girl, the girl wasn't even mad at him, for Merlin's sake. Besides he had made a promise. So with that thought in mind he marched over to the Gryffindor.

Hermione Granger looked up when he was about one step away. She quickly looked around, as if she was assessing the situation and trying to figure out a way to escape. She seemed to realise that there was no way she could get away and turned, reluctantly, back towards him.

"What do you want?" She asked him curtly.

"I'm here for Draco," he told her.

"Don't bother," she said holding up a hand and beginning to turn away. Blaise grabbed her arm, forcing her to face him again.

"Look, I really don't get much pleasure from this, so trust me I'm not doing it for my own benefit. But I told Draco that I would deliver this message and I'm not letting you go until I do,"

"I can just jinx you," she told him threateningly.

"If you do I'll follow you around for the rest of the day, and all of tomorrow, hell, I'll follow you for the whole week until I give you the message. I promised I would and I don't break my promises so why don't you make it easier on both of us and let me tell you now."

Hermione crossed her arms but didn't say anything. Blaise took this as an invitation to continue.

"Ok, Draco wanted me to tell you that he 'didn't know what to do'," he told her.

"What? That's it? You were going to follow me around all week to tell me that?" Hermione asked astonished and hurt at the same time.

"Yes," Blaise said simply. Hermione shook her head and turned away but, again, Blaise caught her arm, stopping her from going anywhere.

"Hermione, wait," he said, before she could protest, "he does like you, you know."

"He sure has a funny way of showing it," she replied angrily.

"Exactly!" Blaise said, "look, he's never liked someone the way he likes you and he doesn't quite know how to act. Plus the fact that you're in Gryffindor, a muggle-born, and best friends with Potter and that Weasley kid. If people find out about you guys, both of you could be in serious trouble, and they'll have no mercy with you. Let me just say, his intentions are good but he's used to being completely in charge, he's used to every girl bowing down to his needs and swooning at the sight of him. He loves that you don't do that but he also doesn't know how to deal with it. You control a part of him that he didn't know existed until now and he's scared scared of not being in complete control of himself. That's why he leaves, why he doesn't treat you well all the time. He's given up trying to push you away but he's terrified of letting you in, of caring for you too much. But I promise you, he can only hold back for so long, soon you'll have him wrapped around your little finger whether he likes it or not, because he can't help it."

Blaise let out a gush of air as he finished and Hermione stared at him, wide eyed.

"That was the message?" she asked him.

"Hell no! If he knew I told you that I'd have to watch my back for the next year, so you can't tell him that I told you that."

"But how do you know that?" Hermione asked him.

"You know how Potter feels about the Weasley girl, don't you?"

Hermione nodded.

"Well for the same reason I know that. Me and Draco may not be as lovey dovey as you and Potter but we're still best friends," he explained, "Ok, well I am finished with the deep, sentimental stuff for the day, that was enough for the week actually so I'm going to finish here. Just please talk to him, ok?"

Hermione opened her mouth as if about to protest but then stopped and shut it again. Blaise raised his eyebrows questioningly at her. She nodded reluctantly which seemed to satisfy him. He strolled away and went over to some Slytherin girl who immediately began batting her eyelashes at him.

"Why was Zabini talking to you?" Harry asked. She jumped at his voice behind her, she was still watching Blaise. She turned around to see both Harry and Ron watching her. Ron looked curious, Harry looked disgusted, but neither looked suspicious. Hermione said the first thing that came to her head.

"He was asking what the homework was."

"But we haven't gotten any homework yet," Ron said, confused.

"That's what I told him," Hermione said quickly.

"Seemed like a pretty long conversation for just that," Harry muttered quietly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked.

"Look Hermione, I know you, and even Ron, have never had anything against Zabini-"

"Hey! What do you mean? I don't like the guy any more than you do!" Ron exclaimed, taken aback.

"Ok fine, just Hermione then. But listen Hermione, I know you've never seen anything bad in him-"

"Of course there's something bad in him, he's friends with Malfoy!" Ron shouted, interrupting Harry again. His shout caused many stares from the other Gryffindor and Slytherin students that filled the classroom. Hermione saw Blaise smirking at them, he'd probably guessed what they were talking about, she thought. Hermione turned back to Harry. He was just about to start talking again when a shadow loomed over them.

"What gives you the idea that you can talk in my classroom?" The voice of Severus Snape interrupted their conversation, "you just lost Gryffindor five points."

All three friends opened their mouths to protest but were stopped short.

"Each!" and with an evil smirk and a particularly dirty look directed mainly at Harry, the Slytherin head walked away.

Harry waited until the end of the lesson to talk to Hermione again, he didn't want to loose any more points. He had to run to catch up with her in the corridor, she had been trying to avoid him.

"Hermione, hold on for a second, will you?" Harry called when he saw her just ahead. Hermione slowed down to a stop, realising she couldn't outrun him.

"Yes, Harry?" she asked, impatiently.

"About you talking to Blaise in there..." he trailed off, unsure of how he was going to get his point across, "like I said before, I know you've never really seen anything particularly bad in him." He stopped, waiting for her to contradict him. She stayed silent.

"Anyway, you've probably been seeing more of him this year, you being in the same dorm as Malfoy and all," he shuddered at the thought, "but I'm just reminding you that you can't trust him, ok?"

"Excuse me?" Hermione asked, not sure she understood him correctly.

"You can't trust him, he's scum, like Malfoy, that whole lot in Slytherin are. So even though he'll be in your common room a lot, I just want you to ignore him, ok? Don't talk to him." Hermione couldn't believe this.

"Where did this even come from? You can't tell me who not to talk to Harry, I can look after myself. I'll talk to who I want, I know what I can and can't say. I'd have thought after all these years you'd trust me."

"Hermione, you are not to talk to him, understand?"

"How dare you?!" She gave Harry one last cold stare and marched away without a backwards glance. She was angry but also a bit confused, what had brought this on? Harry did trust her, she knew that, he had never ordered her around like this before. He had also never grouped all of Slytherin in with Malfoy and called them scum before, this just wasn't like him.

Then another thought struck her. If Harry was this mad about her talking to Blaise, how would he act if he ever found out about her and Malfoy, Malfoy; his arch enemy. She could only imagine how he'd react, and Ron too. "Oh God," she whispered to herself, running her hands down her face.

For the rest of the day she spent her free time in the library avoiding everyone, making out she was studying, she wouldn't even talk to Ginny. She left it as long as she could before going up to her dorm but eventually she made the reluctant journey towards the dreaded portrait that would let her into the common room.

"Hello dear, head girl duties not going well?" the portrait asked her sympathetically when she saw her face. Hermione muttered the password without a even a greeting in reply. The portrait swung open with a "well there's no need to be rude..." Hermione made her way as quietly as she could towards the common room to go up to her bedroom. She almost started crying when she saw Draco sitting in the middle of the room, probably waiting for her. She took a deep breath and crossed the room as fast as she could without actually running. She could see him trying to make eye contact with her from the corner of her eye but she wouldn't look at him.

She lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling. If she didn't get some sleep she wouldn't be able to think at all in classes tomorrow, but she couldn't sleep, she wasn't even tired. The same question kept coming into her mind but she still couldn't answer it. What should she do? Be selfish and stay with him or be smart and forget him? Little did she know the subject of her troubles was lying awake in his bed asking himself the exact same question, only he was a little more sure of his answer.

~*~*~*~

When she got to her first class the next morning she made sure Harry could not sit beside her. She dumped her books down on the desk beside Neville, who looked over at her, startled.

"Hi Neville," she said, half-heartedly, not even looking at him. It didn't matter, he was too surprised that she was sitting beside him to make conversation. He just stammered a reply.

Hermione sunk down in her seat, her eyes closed in defeat. There was no way Draco Malfoy was good for her. Being with him was putting her friendship with Harry and Ron in jeopardy, not to mention the fact that it could be dangerous if this was all a set-up, even if it wasn't it was still dangerous. Then there was the fact that he was affecting her school work, not to mention her self esteem, in a bad way. No, it was best for everyone if she just stopped thinking about him altogether. Hermione sighed, that was impossible, she had fallen for him. That was why she couldn't just ignore what Blaise had said to her the day before.

~*~*~*~

She watched his hair, falling over his face as he worked at some assignment he had been given. She smiled as it flicked with every movement of his head, then frowned as she thought back to her conversation with Blaise. She had to do this now, there was no use putting it off, she had already ignored him for a day.

"Draco," she said, announcing her presence. His head immediately jerked up and he stood up when he saw her, his eyes softening.

"Hermione," he began, "I-" he was interrupted.

"Do you like me?" he nodded, his eyes fixated on hers. She walked towards him.

"I want to do this, I want to try this, you and me, just like you said, but I don't know..." she trailed off.

"About yesterday morning-" he started but she interrupted him again.

"It's ok, I got your message," she told him, even though it had not been his message that made her forgive him.

"Then what don't you know?" he asked, worried.

"I'm afraid," she said. He gave her a confused look so she continued, "I'm afraid that you can't... that your heart isn't in the right place."

He raised his eye brows, surprised and guilty, blaming himself fully for the hurt and weariness that showed clearly on her face. He walked quickly around the table and reached her before she had time to back away. He grabbed her hands and tried to look at her but her face was turned down, looking at the ground. He let go of her hands and took her face in both hands and, gently, turned her face up to look at him. He almost hit himself right there when he saw the look on her face. Her eyes brimmed with tears as they gazed into his.

"You're right," he whispered to her. She took a shaky breath but said nothing, so he continued. "My heart isn't in the right place, you took it the minute walked through that door," he motioned with his head to the entrance of the head girl and boy's common room.

"It isn't in the right place, but it's exactly where I want it."

The tears that filled her eyes spilled over, but another feeling tugged at his chest as he watched the corners of her mouth turn up and a small smile lit up her face. He leant towards her and she raised her face to meet him. He let his lips touch her lightly and he felt the water on his cheek as she let the rest of her tears escape.

Hermione couldn't speak. As joy overtook her she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him properly, pushing herself against him, as her tears that had turned from tears of sadness to tears of happiness ran down her cheeks. She felt him respond to her kiss and wrap his arms around her thighs and lift her so that her two legs were wrapped around his waist.

He stumbled backwards and let himself fall onto the couch behind them. He lay on his back and pulled her on top of him. Hermione pulled away and sunk into the space between him and the back of the couch and buried her face in the crook of his neck, suddenly exhausted. He wrapped his arm around her protectively and didn't move while she dozed off, the heat from his body washing over her.

**

She woke up a while later to someone shaking her shoulder. She looked up, it was Draco.

"Hey, dinner's starting in a few minutes. Time to get up," he told her, smiling down at her. She stretched, smiled up at him and, reluctantly, sat up and untangled herself from him.

"Sorry," she said, blushing.

"For what?" he asked.

"For falling asleep and using you as a cushion," she told him, embarrassed. He laughed.

"You don't have to say sorry, don't worry, I liked it," he assured her, "You can use me as a cushion any time you want."

She giggled, still half embarrassed that she had fallen asleep on him. He took her hand in his, Hermione smiled. His hand was so much bigger than hers, it made her feel safe somehow. She tried to flatten her hair with her free hand, it had gotten a bit messed up while she slept. She felt his hand tug slightly away from hers when they reached the exit to the common room, she understood immediately and let go of his hand.

Draco let out a small, unnoticeable sigh of relief. He didn't want to explain to her again why this had to be a secret. He should have known that Hermione was smarter than that but he had still been worried, unnecessarily it turned out.

They walked out of the common room together, but not conversing in any way, not even looking at each other. Anyone walking by would have come to the conclusion that they were two people who didn't like each other, judging from their hostility towards each other, and had had the unfortunate luck of being placed in the same dorm together.

Draco's long strides got him to the Great Hall before Hermione, but he stood there at the entrance, waiting for her. Dinner had already started so most people were inside already. Hermione started when she saw him standing there, she looked around to make sure he wasn't looking at someone else, then made her way towards him. He took her hand in his, bent down and kissed her gently on her lips. She smiled shyly up and him.

Blaise Zabini laughed to himself as he watched his best friend kiss the Gryffindor muggle-born in front of the entrance to the Great Hall. Of all the people... he thought to himself. He watched them break apart, then step away from each other, enter the great hall and walk in different directions to join their friends in their own houses. He laughed again as the doors swung closed again, blocking the inside scene from him. If anyone had told him at the start of the year that his best friend would be going out with Hermione Granger he would have laughed in their face, or punched them in the face, it depended what mood he was in. Well one thing was for sure, he thought to himself, life was definitely weird, and he didn't expect that it was going to change any time soon. And, with that thought still in mind, he followed the forbidden couple into the Great Hall to have his dinner.

Well there you go! I know it had quite a bit of Blaise in it but I like Blaise!:D I hope you liked it anyway! Please please please review!! I'll reply to every review so please do! Any comments, questions, they'll make me happy :) Well I'll talk to you in my next chapter, or as review replies *smiles hopefully* byebye!

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LettersFromNoah xxx